Morocco

April 2017
A short but fine adventure by Ilus Read more
  • 5footprints
  • 2countries
  • 1days
  • 7photos
  • 0videos
  • 256kilometers
  • Day 1

    Ferry to Tangier Med

    April 23, 2017 ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    After a breakfast in Spain we got to the terminal to signs of all ferries being completely delayed. Our original ferry was supposed to leave at 10. In the end we got on a ferry that was supposed to leave at 4 in the morning but actually managed to leave at 11 with a slight 7 hour delay. Lesson learned, don't buy you tickets in advance, especially if you're without a car as there's always tickets available... On the ferry we had to fill out our own immigration forms, and also some random moroccan guy's form too, as he asked us to. We gave up when he wouldn't tell us his address and just told us to write down whatever we want...Read more

  • Day 1

    Taxi ride to Tangier from the port

    April 23, 2017 in Morocco ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    I think I can safely say this was the scariest car ride I ever took in my life, an old Mercedes driving on small mountain roads, overtaking anything and everything regardless of visibility. While beeping at them. And drinking a glass cup of coffee. At least he didn't try and scam us with the cost, which is actually really surprising for the rest of the trip.Read more

  • Day 1

    Finding a rental car

    April 23, 2017 in Morocco ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    So the evening before we left Seamus realised reading the printed car rental papers, that they require an extortionately high deposit on your credit card, so we had to cancel it last minute (I think I didn't want to worry Anna and Andi, so I didn't tell them until they were in Spain, sorry guys) we read on the Internet that small local companies are more flexible so our plan was to just wing it. We got to Tangier, sat down in a cafe with mint tea and WiFi and started googling. After a while we split into two teams where Andi and I looked on the Internet, and Seamus and Anna walked around trying to find rentals we saw on the map. After a while I found a place with a number that had WhatsApp and he answered me, so we decided to go and try them. I just can't remember why, but we took 2 separate taxis, where Seamus and me got into one, and told the other to follow us in another one once they find one. They later told me they were terrified, as a minute later the taxi pulled over, and a second moroccan dude got into their taxi, chatting away with the driver, with no explanation. Thankfully it did actually take them to the rental place. We could not have asked for a nicer car rental, then this one that we just found by pure luck:our car did everything we wanted from it and we even negotiated the deposit down to an acceptable level. The Dacia Logan was a faithful friend to us on the whole trip!Read more

  • Day 1

    Driving to Fes

    April 23, 2017 in Morocco ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    The drive to Fes was about 300 kilometres, and according to Google should have take 4 hours. Of course when we planned our first nights sleep there, we didn't calculate a few extra hours of finding a rental car company in the afternoon... Regardless we needed to get there somehow. The drive was super interesting as the terrain changed every half an hour from orchards to mountains to fields and then finally to something more dry, and more what we expected from Morocco. My most vivid memory is probably the forests we drove past where the ground was covered with trash probably up to your knees. And I'm sure we've already met donkeys and goats and humans on the road. Driving in Morocco was crazy but it was all more or less fine until it got dark, and we had to drive on a small, really dark road with Seamus getting tired. I know I was counting down every minute of driving there, even though it probably wasn't more than half an hour driving there, it felt like forever. We actually drove past a really brutal looking car accident, which reaffirmed us in thinking we need to be really careful. We got stopped by our first roadblock police already this day too, but what we've read proved to be true :the King ordered the police to stop bothering turists, so he just asked us something funny (something about football maybe?) and sent us on our way. When we finally arrived on the borders or Fes, we were relieved, but that's only because we didn't know what driving in the city would be like (and finding our riad...)Read more